Explain this strategy.

I guess I don’t see the point but I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. For a few months now our AH prices for flasks and stuff would start on Tuesday at 80+gold and hold at about 70ish until the weekend when the price crashed to about 55-60 gold. Myself I had a sorta rule not to even list under 65g figuring I’d just wait until Tuesday and list then if the price was too low. Heck I only sold <50 flasks a week.

Anyway, this guy comes in and lists 100+ each on each type of flask all for 50 gold each, any that are listed under his he/she whatever, buys as soon as possible. The mat cost is still about 75 gold.

Now I can see this driving people out of the market while he is playing his game but unless he keeps them that low people will just come back again as soon as the price changes. What is the end goal here? How does this strategy work?

What Racki said, its likely his cost of production is less than yours. he may just be a gold farmer that wants his items to sell, hencce he can risk listing 100 of each flask because he knows people wont undercut him. It is hard to say what his long term goal is, but for now he wants to seize the market. How quickly people return will depend on the server.

I guess I don’t see the point but I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. For a few months now our AH prices for flasks and stuff would start on Tuesday at 80+gold and hold at about 70ish until the weekend when the price crashed to about 55-60 gold. Myself I had a sorta rule not to even list under 65g figuring I’d just wait until Tuesday and list then if the price was too low. Heck I only sold <50 flasks a week.

Anyway, this guy comes in and lists 100+ each on each type of flask all for 50 gold each, any that are listed under his he/she whatever, buys as soon as possible. The mat cost is still about 75 gold.

Now I can see this driving people out of the market while he is playing his game but unless he keeps them that low people will just come back again as soon as the price changes. What is the end goal here? How does this strategy work?

Well its very similar to the strategy followed by high-rolling Scribes. You will often times see Scribes post their glyphs for less than the cost to make them, more so the trainer learnt glyphs. They do this cause these are not their big money makers. They often make their income and profits from the ones discovered via research. However, selling glyphs at lower prices still allows them to control the market.

Similarly with Enchanting.

However, Alchemy is a tough one since I've noticed even during Cataclysm Flasks/Potions were often cheaper than the cost to make them. But its often a high production, low profit venture at the best of times unless they are transmutation.

If they are a Potion or Elixir Master, they normally mass produce them in 100s and if they are lucky with procs should get a stack or two extra. To top it off, they normally get their mats bought for less than the AH price.

Alchemy is probably the only profession worth investing only if you mass produce. Don't expect to make big profits if you are only selling 1-10 flasks a day. You need to be churning out a ton of them.

But that is probably why he can sell it so low. Also the opportunity costs factor in as well. He could probably compete with all you 75G potion sellers and selling probably 3-4 and keep getting under cut every now and then or he can simply slash prices to 50G and knows no one will undercut him and sell 15+ in day.

I only list what I grow on a few farms and what I don't use for my own main and alts so it's no skin off my nose. Heck if the price was to get a bit lower I'd stop farming and just buy em. I was just worried I was missing some great gold making strategy.

Can you explain to me why the mat cost is 75g, is the vial really that expensive? Now I will answer that question. Some people choose to BUY mats off the AH and think that the expenditure is what everyone does. This is not so. There are other better ways of getting the herbs to make the flasks. They took the easy, cheap way and try to make a profit that way. Free tip, what you put in is what you get out. I can make a potion for the cost of the vial, same with the flask, trick is I use my own herbs that I harvested. There is nothing "scumbag undercutter" about it, it is simply smarter business. I make a crapton of money off ppl who buy my herbs and it takes me about an hour to gather 15-20 stacks + 2 stacks of golden lotus A DAY!

Can you explain to me why the mat cost is 75g, is the vial really that expensive? Now I will answer that question. Some people choose to BUY mats off the AH and think that the expenditure is what everyone does. This is not so. There are other better ways of getting the herbs to make the flasks. They took the easy, cheap way and try to make a profit that way. Free tip, what you put in is what you get out. I can make a potion for the cost of the vial, same with the flask, trick is I use my own herbs that I harvested. There is nothing "scumbag undercutter" about it, it is simply smarter business. I make a crapton of money off ppl who buy my herbs and it takes me about an hour to gather 15-20 stacks + 2 stacks of golden lotus A DAY!

Except unless you are specced for procs then selling products made from the herbs you farm that sell for less than the herbs themselves is making less gold than just selling the herbs. If you can quickly farm a lot of mats yourself and have time for it, thats good, but in this situation you would make more just selling mats. It would take you less time too.

Can you explain to me why the mat cost is 75g, is the vial really that expensive? Now I will answer that question. Some people choose to BUY mats off the AH and think that the expenditure is what everyone does. This is not so. There are other better ways of getting the herbs to make the flasks. They took the easy, cheap way and try to make a profit that way. Free tip, what you put in is what you get out. I can make a potion for the cost of the vial, same with the flask, trick is I use my own herbs that I harvested. There is nothing "scumbag undercutter" about it, it is simply smarter business. I make a crapton of money off ppl who buy my herbs and it takes me about an hour to gather 15-20 stacks + 2 stacks of golden lotus A DAY!

So Golden Lotus are selling for about 60 - 62 gold and you would make them into flasks to sell at 50 gold?

I think the person is looking for people to undercut him. He buys them, resells them on tues/weds/thurs and uses the ones that didnt sell to redo the cycle.

Originally Posted by Kantoro

Can you explain to me why the mat cost is 75g, is the vial really that expensive? Now I will answer that question. Some people choose to BUY mats off the AH and think that the expenditure is what everyone does. This is not so. There are other better ways of getting the herbs to make the flasks. They took the easy, cheap way and try to make a profit that way. Free tip, what you put in is what you get out. I can make a potion for the cost of the vial, same with the flask, trick is I use my own herbs that I harvested. There is nothing "scumbag undercutter" about it, it is simply smarter business. I make a crapton of money off ppl who buy my herbs and it takes me about an hour to gather 15-20 stacks + 2 stacks of golden lotus A DAY!

There is nothing "smarter" about it, its a choice between time or being more diverse in your markets.
I'd rather be in multiple markets that take me ~20 min to deal with than farm for mats for one market for an hour.

Edit: as the above poster said, you could also break down the mats and sell them for more in some cases.

Yeah... procs are the only thing I can think of. Or, they recently came to the server with a crap ton of mats and decided to nuke the market. I'm still going with procs. OH... OR... The use of enigma seeds. After a month of planting enigma seeds I had more Golden Lotus than I knew what to do with. I mean, I couldn't give the stuff away fast enough. Still going with procs.

So Golden Lotus are selling for about 60 - 62 gold and you would make them into flasks to sell at 50 gold?

No, I would, and do, sell the herbs on the AH. However, if I could sell a flask for 65g and the current market has them at 75 listed in the dozens, I would sure as hell undercut. Because my mat cost is zero. I make a killing on people who by my herbs, cuz I get them from my farms. I get between 12 and 15 stacks of herbs a day, as well as 2 stacks of golden lotus. I could take the time to make them into flasks, but its easier to sell them to ppl who buy herbs off the AH.

It could also be that this person looted a [Mysterious Bag] from a rarespawn, and just wanted to get rid of the stuff for cheap. I personally made about 1000g from one of these. It contained a REDICULOUS amount of random enchanting/leatherworking/alchemy mats. I sold all of it very cheap and made huge profit. But that's only a guess.

I usually restock on week-ends; in fact, I've not stopped crafting altogether but it was darn close when I quit playing. Back when I got massive shipments from bots on a daily basis, I had the lowest prices on my server all day every day, but it's been a long time and I'm not sure the bot-ridden Auction House is still as prevalent.

If it is, find one and ask that they C.O.D you all their stock then compete.

wh...It sure as fuck is not zero. Do people that think like this have any concept of the value of time?

Really, how much gold do you pay for your game time? I pay 14.99 a month for my play time, do we really wanna start this discussion? No, we don't. I pay no gold for my mats, other than the miniscule cost of a vial or some paper for inscription. My time is my own to spend.